Northumberland Uplands LEADER

Northumberland Uplands LEADER

The Northumberland Uplands LEADER programme is open for applications and will provide grants to small businesses, farmers, foresters and communities for projects that create jobs and grow the rural economy.

Welcome to the Northumberland Uplands

About NULAG

The overall goal for LEADER is to improve the quality of life in rural areas. Funding community projects is just part of this work.

Our members

News & meetings

Keep up to date with the latest news stories from the Northumberland Uplands LEADER and when their next meetings are held

Contact us/Useful links

Find contact details for Northumberland Uplands LEADER and useful links to other programmes in the North and further afield.

Uplands LEADER

Welcome to the Northumberland Uplands, a rich, cultural landscape running from the River Tyne in the south, through some of England’s deepest rural areas to the border with Scotland in the north.

The area covers the whole of Northumberland National Park, the dark skies of Kielder Water and Forest Park and the most visited and dramatic parts of the Hadrian’s Wall UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This remote area is characterised by the moors and grasslands of the Cheviot Hills, with their ancient hill forts and pure rivers and the wild valleys of the North Tyne and Redesdale. Northumberland Uplands LEADER programme The Northumberland LEADER programme is open for applications and will provide grants to small businesses, farmers, foresters and communities for projects that create jobs and grow the rural economy.

The Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group (NULAG) uses the LEADER approach to promote bottom-up, local decision making. LEADER is an area-based approach that ensures development is appropriate for that area.

LEADER views local people as the main asset of rural areas and empowers them to decide what is best suited to their own environment, culture, working traditions and skills.

Each LEADER area has a local action group (LAG), made up of local people. The LAG has the task of compiling a local development strategy and making decisions about the different projects to be financed in order to deliver that strategy.

NULAG produced their latest local development strategy in 2014, which is now in place from 2014-2020. This new strategy guides the LAG in making funding decisions in the new LEADER programme.

Projects supported by NULAG must be delivered in the Northumberland Uplands.

Projects supported 2007 - 2013

Applicant: Horse Power for Ability

This project saw the opening of a new horse power therapy centre to help people with mobility problems in Northumberland. The business introduced hippotherapy – a specialist physiotherapy intervention using the movement of horses – to the Northumberland Uplands. This innovative new business purchased specialist equipment to help open Horse Power for Ability. The business provides opportunities for care provision in a controlled and unusual setting.

one micro business supported

one micro enterprise start up

one job

LEADER grant - £8,389

Applicant: Scarlett and the Spotty Dog

Scarlett and the Spotty Dog has launched as a cakery producing locally and ethically sourced specialist cakes and baked goods, offering something a little different to the market.

This project supported the start up of the bakery by installing a commercial kitchen from which to grow the business and also purchased a delivery van to take deliveries to local shops and farmers markets.

one micro business supported

one micro enterprise start up

one and a half jobs

one community/business network

LEADER grant - £10,285

Applicant: Moss Peteral Farming Partnership

Moss Peteral Farm has diversified by getting involved in care farming. The farm business has installed a wood fired boiler and central heating system that has enabled suitable accommodation, meaningful work opportunities and respite care to be offered to vulnerable adults with social and care needs.

The farm can accommodate two people at a time, with the length of stay depending on the clients' requirements. The farm is now registered with Northumberland Care Trust who place clients with them through the adult placement carers scheme.

one micro business supported

one micro enterprise start up

LEADER grant - £9,867

Applicant: The Upper Coquetdale Farmers Group

The overall aim of the homegrown protein crops research project is to explore the economic, environmental and ethical performance of a group of upland stock farms in Coquetdale, through the trial growing and use of appropriate legume-based forage crops over a two-year period.

The trial involved planting plots of a farm specific legume forage mix and comparing them with existing hay meadows. Forage growth, animal performance and financial performance are measured to enable feed supply and feed demand to be understood and appropriate feed budgets devised.

This project supported the young firefighters' association to establish three new branches in rural Northumberland, based around fire stations in Rothbury, Wooler and Haltwhistle.

Each cadet branch is supported by two retained firefighters who live and work locally and two trained young volunteers and involve young people in decision making and planning. Each branch recruits young people aged 13 to 18.

They participate in a structured, accredited training programme, which leads to a Level 2 BTEC qualification in Fire and Rescue Services in the Community.

Firefighting skills are taught as well as training around health and safety, nutrition, first aid, communications, problem solving and understanding anti-social behaviour. A further station in Amble has been funded by the Coast and Lowlands Local Action Group.

245 training days

three community/business networks

12 young people

LEADER grant - £26,770

Applicant: St Mary the Virgin Church, Longframlington

The Opening Doors project has completed the capital development of a new community room and employed a part-time community co-ordinator to develop the use of the community room and identify and facilitate new projects and services as requested by the locals.

A part-time youth worker is also providing an outreach service to the children and young people of Longframlington and the surrounding area. Now that these services are up and running and have established clear community need they being run by the local community.

Applicant: Humshaugh Community Ventures Ltd

The villages of Humshaugh and Wall came together to protect their valuable village shop from closure. Facing a real prospect of the final shop in their community closing, local people formed a committee and purchased the lease and took on the day to day management of the shop.

The shop is really important in terms of basic rural service provision so the community got on and did something about its impending closure. The shop has generated enough profit to start recycling funds back to the community through other projects. The new Village Hall commercial grade kitchen has benefitted from this new source of community investment.

two micro businesses supported

one micro enterprise start up

one job

five community/business networks

six young people

LEADER grant - £22,500

Applicant: Glendale Gateway Trust

England’s first eco-museum – a museum without walls – was developed by a group of organisations and individuals from the private, voluntary and public sectors.

The idea behind Flodden Eco-Museum is to allow communities, projects, locations and events to retain their individual ownership but to be linked through a single brand, in this case the Battle of Flodden and the 500-year commemoration in 2013.

This project provided various workshops, training days, and a single identity branding for all sorts of local businesses and organisations. This community network ensures a legacy within the area beyond the 500-year commemoration of Flodden in 2013.

one micro business supported

41 training days

two community/business networks

LEADER grant - £24,265

Applicant: Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society

Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society wanted to increase the ability of the general public to visit the observatory. A much broader public access programme has been established by this project allowing many more astronomy sessions to be held.

As a result the project is now self sufficient, generating its own funds through increased numbers of paid visits by the public which also raised public awareness of the observatory and the work of Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society.

An edition of The Sky at Night was filmed here on 15th February 2013.

one micro business supported

LEADER grant - £50,000

Applicant: Northumberland National Park Authority

This Young Enterprise LEADER Project supported the work of NULAG's Youth Animation Project. The project provided young people with an opportunity to gain enterprise skills through a series of training and business open days.

It also offered the chance to rake part in training aimed at increasing the involvement of young people in work environments. A change maker was also recruited in this project to establish a network of young people.

The network has already voiced the options on life in rural Northumberland to their local MPs.

12 micro businesses

three networks

90 young people

LEADER grant - £26,928

Applicant: Kirkhale Creative

Kirkharle Creative is a community interest group made up of businesses based at Kirkharle Courtyard. Famous as the birthplace of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the group wanted to expand Kirkharle’s offer by appealing to families with young children, and has created a children’s play area that draws upon the history of the site as part of its inspiration.

A range of environmentally appropriate play equipment has been installed, along with a sandpit that mimics the shape of the serpentine lake also on site and interpretation boards and games.

five businesses supported

LEADER grant - £6,721

Applicant: Northumberland National Park Authority

This automatic wildfire detection system project is highly innovative and unique across the UK in managing wildfires. NULAG has supported the purchase and installation of optical and infra-red cameras that are capable of detecting when fires break out in remote areas of Northumberland National Park.

The cameras transmit a signal to a computer containing special software that acts as an early warning system. This project has benefited from links with similar systems in place in several European countries.

Northumberland National Park deliver this project in parallel with the Cheviot Futures project that gives practical advice to land managers on adaptation and climate change.

five businesses supported

LEADER grant - £59,230

Our Funding

In early September 2014, Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group (NULAG) successfully submitted their new strategy to Defra and were pleased to hear that their bid was successful in November 2014.

The local development strategy (LDS) covers a large part of western rural Northumberland incorporating the Northumberland Uplands and sets priorities for the rural development support we hope to provide from 2015-2020.

The LDS draws together the needs and aspirations of local communities with the government’s priorities for LEADER. Through the consultation events the following six key themes were identified which reflect national priorities:

increasing farm productivity

micro and small enterprises and diversification

rural tourism

provision of rural services

cultural and heritage activity

increasing forestry productivity

The new programme launched in the autumn of 2015 and NULAG is keen to receive applications from Uplands area.

The application process is in two stages, starting with an outline application which will be considered by the local action group who will then advise applicants if they can profress to full application.

It is likelt that the application process will take at least 3-4 months from initial contact through to a funding decision.

People with ideas for projects or who want to find out more about LEADER funding should contact Gill Cowell, the programme officer, at gillian.cowell@northumberland.gov.uk or phone 07920 184616

The local development strategy (LDS) covers a large part of western rural Northumberland incorporating the Northumberland Uplands and sets priorities for the rural development support we hope to provide from 2015-2020.

The LDS draws together the needs and aspirations of local communities with the government’s priorities for LEADER. Through the consultation events the following six key themes were identified which reflect national priorities:

increasing farm productivity

micro and small enterprises and diversification

rural tourism

provision of rural services

cultural and heritage activity

increasing forestry productivity

The new programme launched in the autumn of 2015 and NULAG is keen to receive applications from Uplands area.

The application process is in two stages, starting with an outline application which will be considered by the local action group who will then advise applicants if they can profress to full application.

It is likelt that the application process will take at least 3-4 months from initial contact through to a funding decision.

People with ideas for projects or who want to find out more about LEADER funding should contact Gill Cowell, the programme officer, at gillian.cowell@northumberland.gov.uk or phone 07920 184616

Our Members

Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group has drawn its membership from across the uplands to ensure that there is a strong representation from local people who can influence the success of the LEADER approach.

The local action group has an agreed constitution, which includes a statement of culture and values; it is used to ensure consistent good practice and to ask members to work in a manner of mutual respect.

Terry Carroll - ChairTerry has professional qualifications in town and country planning and rural resources management. He worked for the Northumberland National Park Authority for some 25 years, where he became the deputy chief officer.

He subsequently operated as a freelance consultant in the field of rural development and as a research fellow at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University.

He has extensive practical experience of rural planning and land use, environmental conservation, rural micro-businesses and renewable energy, and also of the government institutions, policies and programmes that impact upon these sectors.

He has carried out numerous consultancy assignments in these fields at local, national and international level.

Terry is a director and board member of the Vindolanda Trust.

Stephen Jopling - Vice chair
Born and bred in Northumberland, at least it was Northumberland when I was a lad, it’s been swallowed up by the Newcastle suburbs now. I served 24 years in the Royal Navy as a Marine Engineer, my service included the Falklands War 1982 and the Gulf War 1991.

Left the Royal Navy in 1997 and joined BP Chemicals, where I worked at Grangemouth in Scotland and eventually transferred to BP Exploration in Baku, Azerbaijan for a 2 year assignment. My engineering position started in projects and took me through operations, first as a competency specialist and finally as a Maintenance Excellence Engineer, the 2-year assignment lasted for over 10 years.

I left BP to set up my own company as a Maintenance Excellence Consultant to the Oil and Gas industry.

I was lucky enough to be able to retire at 55 and have lived with my wife and young son in the upper North Tyne Valley for the last 10 years.

Tom Johnston
Tom moved to rural north Northumberland in 1986 and worked in many diferent roles before becoming a founder trustee for the Glendale Gateway Trust. Outside of working life, Tom is a volunteer crew member for the Tall Ships Youth Trust.

Tom said: "I was keen to become involved with the LAG as I feel I have learned so much about rural living in the past 15 years.

"The theme I am particularly interested in is 'Provision of Rural Services'. My work with the Glendale Gateway Trust has been all about connecting services to ensure they are sustainable and accessibile in the long term".

Louise Kirkwood
Louise has lived in Northumberland for more than 15 years. She is a parish councillor and an active member of several local community-run organisations.

Louise said: "I am keen to support the LAG because I feel it is important to help local groups and businesses make the best use of available resources in order to keep rural Northumberland very much alive socially and economically through challenging times."

Mike Murray
Although Mike was born and brought up in Northumberland, he spent 15 years running development programmes in Africa, which included various small grant schemes focused on improving infrastructure.

Mike believes that sustainable development in the Northumberland Uplands is community-based and inclusive, requiring a collaboration of the public and private sectors.

Barbara Sexon
Barbara is a mechanical engineer who specialised in renewable energy systems.
She has lived in the Coquet Valley for 25 years and in that time has been involved in a number of community organisations.

Barbara believes that for local communities to thrive, active support of the region's small businesses and varied culture and heritage activities is essential

Dagmar Winter
Dagmar Winter is passionate about rural life in Northumberland.

For nine years she was the rural affairs officer for the Diocese of Newcastle, which included some time chairing NULAG.

Now Rector of Hexham, enriched by a "hub" and market town perspective, she retains her interest in rural Northumberland.

Alistair Cochrane
Originally from Alnwick, Alistair has lived in Northumberland for all of his life and has worked as a Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor in the county for over 25 years.
He is a Partner in the Property Consultancy Firm, Strutt & Parker, and lives near Wooler.

He has a good understanding of rural business and environmental issues, agriculture and forestry, together with a strong personal interest in the region’s culture and heritage.

He is a committee member and former chairman of the North East branch of The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and is passionate about maintaining and enhancing the socio-economic health of the Northumberland uplands.

Andrew Poad
Born and brought up in Tynedale, Andrew trained at Kirkley Hall and Newton Rigg in Countryside Management whilst working with Northumberland National Park.

For the last 25 years he has worked for the National Trust in Northumberland and is currently their General Manager for the places they look after along the Wall and in the Tyne Valley.

In so doing, he has gained a breadth of experience in land management and rural businesses issues in this part of the world.

Andrew is passionate about his native county and in finding ways to ensure its natural and socio-economic environments remain sustainable in these increasingly uncertain times.

Alan Sharp

Born and bred in Tynedale Alan an associate with Land Factor and manages the Haltwhistle Office and local estates.
Alan has District Councillor for the Hadrian Ward since 1987 to 2008 when the District Councils were abolished and the County Councillor for the Haydon and Hadrian Ward since 2008.

He is also a Board member of Northumberland National Park Authority and it is in this capacity that he serves on NULAG. He is involved in many local committees and is very keen to help the community develop and to improve the facilities for all ages.

“I am very happy to serve on the Uplands Leader Committee to help and promote the local businesses in Northumberland.”

Kate Cairns

Kate Cairns was born and brought up on the coast of rural Northumberland. She is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a freelance sustainability advisor.

She has worked in the construction industry, all over the UK and abroad, for over 20 years. She specialises in driving new standards in sustainability and safety.

She is a member of her local parish council and is a primary school governor. Kate represents NCC on the group as the elected member for the Longhoughton ward